Ignore the Fiscal Cliff, Look for Opportunities Abroad

In a way, the U.S. markets at the moment are a victim of their own size and success.

If you look at markets around the world since early 2011, you will notice a few things. First, most of them have not performed well. The markets in many Asian countries, emerging markets and the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) fell 30 percent or greater from 2011 to their lows of a few months ago.

What you will also notice is that the U.S., U.K. and German markets all have vastly outperformed.

It seems that money poured out of countries that are smaller in scope and size or are experiencing debt crises and poured into these large, liquid markets. However, that has caused those markets, especially the United States, to become pretty undesirable.

For example, the Standard & Poor’s 500 trades around 14 times earnings, whereas Russia trades at 4 times earnings, Ireland 7 times earnings and Spain and Italy near 9 times earnings.

We all know that Europe is in a recession. However, much of this has been discounted. At their lows in June, many European markets were 70 to 80 percent off their all-time highs. This would equal the S&P 500 trading at 400. We all know that if the S&P 500 was at those levels, we would think it is a great buy even if the economy was in a severe recession.

We have all sorts of beat-up fantastic deals in Europe and Asia at the moment. In addition, the Russian market trades at near ¼ the valuation of the U.S. market.

Therefore, I would ignore the noise about the fiscal cliff and a few percentage points of spending cuts and tax increases.

Look to Europe, look to Asia — these are where the real values in the world are.

About the Author: David Skarica
David Skarica is a member of the Moneynews Financial Brain Trust. Click Here to read more of his articles. He also writes the Gold Stock Adviser. Discover more by Clicking Here Now.